Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

I think I may have been the only Daring Baker who was not excited about making Nanaimo bars this month. It wasn’t that I don’t like them. I do, and I have posted them before. However, I try to avoid doing repeats and also, JenFinn had just made them a few weeks ago for New Years. I thought I was full of Nanaimo bars until next New Year. Nevertheless I knew I would press on because that is what being a Daring Baker is all about. Nanaimo bars are pretty simple to make so the challenge part was making the graham crackers. Our host is gluten free, but I chose to make the regular gluten filled crackers.

The crackers were pretty simple to make, but the batter is very sticky. The recipe makes way more graham crackers than you’ll need so if you are making them just for this, halve the recipe and that should be plenty. I didn’t have time to make pretty graham crackers so I just did one big layer of them, but they came out well and taste pretty great! I will definitely have to experiment with those again in the future. I am glad that I checked the grahams halfway through. They only took about half the time to cook.

The only real challenge with making Nanaimo bars is planning because you have to wait for the various layers to chill. I doubled the amount of chocolate on top because I think it looks prettier and I like the contrast with that super sweet interior. For me, the other challenge was getting these suckers out of the pan! I had to use all my arm strength, but luckily I didn’t ruin my pan. Next time (if there is a next time), I will line that pan with parchment. Nanaimo bars are super rich. If you can't finish the pan yourself, take them to work or freeze them for another time!

The graham cracker recipe can be found on 101 Cookbooks. The Nanaimo bar recipe is below. Visit the blogroll to see how the other Daring Bakers fared with their bars.

You weren't the only Daring Baker who was less than excited about this one. And I, too, resorted to full-gluten for my graham crackers. In the end, like you, I was thrilled to make the graham crackers, as I have a feeling that they will make a return appearance in my dessert-making. As for the bars themselves, I'm still not convinced. But! It was a nice break after the showstopping gingerbread houses, no? :D